How Do I Know..??

Know what, you ask? Know, that we, the citizens & residents of USA are in deep shit and it started much sooner, than all the geniuses with bunch of diplomas from all kinds of worthless educational institutions are willing to admit.

If I had told you 3 years ago, that the US economy is just about to crush, nobody would believe me.

How did I see it coming, it is very easy to explain. And it has nothing to do with the “phony” numbers, the government is supplying the Stock Markets. It has everything to do with ability to observe and use a common sense.

Put it this way. 10 years ago all the people I knew in my old country were asking me if there is any opportunity for work in USA. Just like Bob Dylan sings in one of his songs, “Times, they are changing..”, that’s how the situation changed during not even decade.

The same people are calling me now, asking me to reserve a condominium on the Beach for 2-4 weeks for them, because they want to spend a vacation in Florida. They come here, enjoying the weather, buy any possible thing, they can carry on the plane and when they say “good bye” to me, their last remark is : “It is unbelievably cheap here..”  The first person I know did it exactly 3 years ago and when the arrogant immigration officer , used to asking a stupid questions, asked if he is going to be illegally working in USA, my friend told him the truth : ” I am going to be fishing , you moron !!”

I am not going to make a long list of reasons for this situation, because first of all, nobody is going to pay me for the trouble and the time I spend on analyzing that stuff, and for the second, nobody would take me seriously anyway. 

But I will make a little hint here.

Last time I checked, my computer was not able to “shit” eggs and I don’t think the Web 2.0 can assemble a car or even bicycle. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and internet is very valuable for gathering informations of all sorts, but still it supposed to be just a tool for creating some “real” stuff, not the Goal in creating a Phony value.

It is only my private opinion, but I think that the real reason for the US Dollar to sink almost to worthless piece of paper is, that instead of Doers, worthless Talkers are in control of US business.

Personally, I could care less, my customers loans are collaterized at least with some value ( car), unlike the milions of mortgages collaterized by nothing else, than Fake apraisals. If it comes to the point I need to re-po the collateral, I am pretty sure, I will find it in front of the local city homeless shelter and resale it again, but believe or not, I actually really care for the US customer, after all, in the big picture, I am One of Them!!

I had asked my 85 years old grandma if there is anything the “Big Ben” could do about it.

She had scratched her gray hair for a moment and then she told me..: ” Stop Printing the f….g Money!!!”

Well Ben, there you have it….. 

   

  

How to get their attention and not end up Dead

  Yes my friends, I mean dead, but it’s used as an expression and the attention most of you lunatics want to get from, is The Venture Capitalist Gangsters. I used that picture on purpose and all of you, who count on VCs’ money as the only thing missing in getting your business on the road, may as well write the name of your business on that little, cute tag, hanging of the feet of that corpse. 

Put it this way..: If you approach me and ask me to invest in one particular product especially if it is technology related, I would not give you a dime, unless I know, that you are able to turn on spot, forget about that thing and move on, without any regards as to abandoning your original dream.

Let me explain.

 When I see you are so focused on one thing and so pitiful and foolish in thinking, that this is the only right stuff, which will “save the world”, you are unintentionally telling me, that in case some 12 years old teenager, waking up the next morning after his first experience with Whiskey comes up with better technology, this would not surprise me at all this days, well you are telling me that because of some 12 years old genius on the other side of the Globe, all my money will end up in Toilet.

One thing you need to understand.

 I, the Al Capone, the gangster, who you are asking to help you to achieve your dream..Personaly, I don’t give shit about your dream, I just want you to make me a money, alot of it and for that reason, I am not going to invest in the horse ( the product), if I will invest at all, then I will invest in The Jockey ( you) and when circumstances shows, that your horse probably not going to win the race, I want to be sure, that you are able and ready to jump on another horse, provided by whomever,you let your horse die with no remorse and you’ll  finish and win the race. After all, I don’t care, I just want to get the trophy.

So my fellow dreamers, Do You Finally Get It ???? 

In order to get my attention and not feel like a piece of dirt after you leave the table, you have to make me believe, that you are the best Jockey there is, because I am pretty sure, I can find you another horse, in case yours foolish, idiotic and crazy dream horse turns up to be a looser. Capiche ??

That’s what my take would be if I was one of the Gangsters..( I am not saying, that I am not..LOL)    

The Race with own Ego

After all those years dealing with almost imposible dilemmas and situations, pushing the limits further ahead right at the time when one more challenge is solved, it makes me wonder…

What is the cause making lunatics like us always keep going??

Well, I am not a psychiatrist of any kind, but it seems to me that when we start pursuing our dream so fanatically, that on many cases dreams turn to the nightmares and when I think about it, I don’t see the main reason for it in doing something majorly wrong business-wise. Most of us entered the entrepreneur scene with at least some kind of plan, ideas or knowledge and I don’t assume we turn overnight to worthless idiots.

I see the main reason for the nightmares and anxiety is, well, because somewhere on the journey many of us unintentionally enter the race, which you can never win. That is unless you change.

You are entering the race with the worse and toughest competition there is and that is your Own Ego. Unless you realize that and at some point of the race you’ll tell it : “Go to hell”, most likely you’ll be running as long as you can and then you’ll die. That’s O.K , everybody has to die someday, but you my friend, instead of having your dream in mind before making the last breath, you’ll be haunted with your nightmare..

I am not saying that if you have an idea or dream, you should just let it go and forget about it. On the contrary, I want you to succeed and enjoy the happiness in what you doing, pursue it with focus and make it work, but in order to fully enjoy all of this, you have to be able to see the color of the “grass”, hear the “birds” singing in the morning and don’t say your annoying wife and kids, begging for attention, you don’t have time for them, because you need to take care of just one more thing. Believe me, I had done it many times in the past myself and as more I pushed, the less I had achieved. Your mind starts to control the most important part of you as an entrepreneur and that is Your Natural Instincts. Unless you let your instinct tell to stop, relax, to lay down on the grass, close your eyes and breath in the fresh air, rest assured, there always going to be One more thing to solve. And when you do that, you take your kid to soccer game and while your eyes are watching him to score, your mind is already somewhere else on the next project.

Once you get to this stage, many of us are in it and not realizing it, it is hard to stop. The thought of what is going to happen if we don’t do the next step right now is almost unimaginable. I can tell you that most likely nothing major going to happen, you are not going to be better or worse, than you are today, because at the time you are done with the “urgent” step, the past is not going to matter anyway, you did not even had the chance to enjoy the previous successful step, you are not happy with where you are Now again and there we go. All over again & again.

The way you deal with that is, you have to feel your success Now, take the Vision of Success like a journey, just the fact, you have an idea of how to create even better product than IPOD and after you had contacted numerous VC firms nobody called you back, should not make you feel like it is the end of the wold.

 Accept and face the reality, the reality of Now. What is your problem Now? If you answer your-self truthfully, you’ll see, you don’t have any problems as of now, only your Ego feels the fear of failure tomorrow. Once you realize, that tomorrow is going to be Now again, you are making the first step on the journey to not only success, but to happiness it-self.

Lesson # 1

Don’t be bothered at all, when VC don’t call you back. Accept the reality, that the world is full of people with great ideas, in case you don’t know any VCs’ personally, the chances you get their attention are 0.000009 %. And you know why?? Put yourslf in their shoes and if you are smart, like they are, you will see, that there always going to be somebody with even better idea, better software, better this & that. By the time, your idea gets developed, somebody else comes on the market even bigger “killer”. So  ironically, if you think about it and look at this issue from the distance, maybe the way how to deal with your dream will have nothing to do with the dream itself. Maybe instead of fully focusing on the project, you should focus on getting the right connections..

But that is a matter of another article…..

And folks, enjoy the moment, because Success happens Now, not right after you do this & that…     

  

“Importance” of a Business Plan

Let’s talk a little bit about a topic, which most smart asses, calling themself consultants in the business financing field will push you to hire them and of course pay alot of money for it and that is, the importance of a detail business plan in regarding to obtain any type of funding from a bank. See the garbage above? That is exactly the place, where all the money you had spend on a firm supposedly preparing your detail business plan will go at the end of the application process. Even if you prepare detail business plan yourself, spend a lot of time thinking how you’ll be doing this & that, researching the market place and focusing too much on the current conditions of it, write a lot info and figures down and think, that this is the most important stuff for you to do in order to get the funds, let me say it very politely. You are just wasting your time and unless you are very well known writter, nobody is going to read it anyway. Let me explain : The position of a Business Banker as a person taking it one client at a time, paying attention to your particular needs and actually caring about your business as something important for him, hmm..how do I say it, so everybody understand.. Well, these kind of people working in the banks Does Not Exist !!!!

On my recent journey, I had found some institutions actually really wanting to know something about my business, but these were financial companies strictly focused on small business financing, not a banks. Position of a business banker in any bank here, is replaced by a college draduate, punching your SS # into the computer system and if your FICO does not meet the banks’ matrix criteria, you can be talking about your great business and the excellent season you had, the hundreds of thousands of revenues, whole day long, Nobody is going to listen for a simple reason. Nobody, whom you will be talking in the bank about it, will have any idea, what you are talking about.

1st: Get your personal credit straight, if it is too much damaged, get somebody with a good one on Your Ship..

2nd: Get your business credit straight, you don’t need a partner for that, there are actually some firms offering that service and surprisingly, I need to say, some of them works…

3th : Most importantly, what ever your idea of business is, Don’t name it like : ” Uncle Joes’ Steak house” or “Jimmys’ used car sales”….Anything consumer related is a Red Flag for all the banks right now, so name yourself something like : ” Dream Vision”LLC, or “Paradise Entreprises, inc.”  and if by any chance some moron, taking your application for biz. line of credit asks you, what is your business about, just tell him : “I have firm, providing variety services, for variety clients..”, it will be confusing enough to put those guys back where they are coming from anyway..: To The Computer Matrix

The Matrix does not care about Ideas, it cares about numbers, so get your number straight, personal & business and you’ll beat the system.

That is the good news, what’s not so good for some, is the fact, that get all the numbers in working order, sometimes requires “business plan” for itself, but this kind of plan, I suggest, you are thinking really hard about when you want to get the funds and ultimately have the chance to put in use the plan, what everybody say it is important for a start up, that is The Business Plan.  

 

 

 

 

The Beauty & The Ugliness of the “system”

Those few, who are patiently reading all my posts here, can probably feel the way I see the system of small business banking and financing and how it was driving me “nuts”. To those, who like my controversy and even some “anarchism” in my topics regarding this issue I must say upfront, that the days, when I wanted to rent a bulldozer and run it straight through the bank building, because it was full of ignorants, morons and others, not knowing anything about practical business, are most likely over. The picture of a Spanish Lady Anarchist, during the Spanish civil war, is my way of saying good bye to the “dynamite” and welcome to the brain & fun.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think the current system is not working as it should, but to burn the building down, does not sound fun for me anymore, much more fun is, to figure out the way to walk in the bank and even though you don’t have the education required to get a job there, you found a way how to eventually get all the banks’ money, or  buy the whole establishement out and at the end, to be told “thank you” for it. 

I can’t say exactly what was the very defining moment to make the change in my head, but suddenly, I woke up one morning and I felt jolly like a house fly on a piece of 3 days old hot dog at the bottom of forgotten trash can somewhere in the corner of my abandoned home. For all those entrepreneurs and small business owners struggling to make the step to the next level, or even to survive through the current pile of bills, I am just like you, plus I don’t really know much about the business stuff, I am involved in and what I will be involved tomorrow, or next week, but I can tell you this…

There is always a way to get inside that building, if not through the door, then through the window. If not through the window, then through the chimney. And leave the Hope to those standing in line for welfare check. You gotta have a Faith in yourself and in The Lord, because he will help you, if you are willing to help your-self. When you feel your “858th” unsuccessful attempt as a failure, then I suggest you go and apply for a job in Walmart, you don’t have the right attitude, but if you see it as “858th” way how not to do it and all you have to find, is the One right way, then you are my kind of person and I know, you will make it..  

Anyway, enough of preaching, I will feed you my ideas slowly and one piece at a time, for today just three basic takes:

1st.: Think like a thief to catch a thief..

2nd: Think like a banker to outsmart the Banker

3rd: Think like an investor to attract the investors

Because I want you to realize one thing. Your dream is not for sale, what you sell, when you need a capital, is The OPPORTUNITY hidden in it…

Stay tuned..

   

Cash is The King

I read a wonderful article on www.thexbanker blog page about using a different types of capital to fund your business . Like equipment leasing, renting, I would add all kinds of flor planning and pay on extended terms accts. The advantage of this kind of funding is, that unlike unsecured biz. lines of credit, you don’t necessary need an excellent personal credit to get it.   If you are a start up, or even revenue generating business already, sooner, or later you will find out, just as I did ( BTW, the very hard way ), that Cash is the King.

Make no mistake, when you starting a business venture, you most likely need to spend some cash, deposit for this and that…blah, blah, blah….But before you purchase $ 5,000.00 or even more worth of equipment and pay cash for it, let me suggest, you find a smarter way to get it . It will cost you additionaly on fees, or interest charges, but at the same time you will preserve the precious cash, to pay electric bill, phone & internet bill, or just wages to the people you got involved in your “crazy” dream.. What is the smarter way, I had hinted on the beginning of the post and if you are brave enough to go and start something on your own, you better be smart enough to find how to get that stuff done, without me to telling how..

As always something from personal experience : The value of just a little cash in your biz. acct. left free to use right now, you will realize, when your business is really profitable on paper and in the books, but everybody, you doing business with is owing you money and their payment is coming in two weeks from now. Hurray, we got the cash coming, right?? Right, but the utility company don’t want to wait two more weeks, not to mention, the few people standing by you are having kids and the lunch money in the school are due tomorrow…That’s beside the point, people helping you achieve your dream need to be rewarded and the best reward is on time paycheck( however small or big). 

It sounds and also could feel “weird”, that in the 21st century, when everything is done online, people don’t even use cash money for purchases anymore and VISA is everywhere, you want to be…..In the business and even more in the world of small business…Cash is The King, if you don’t believe it, you will know, when you don’t have it….. 

Count on it.

P.S. For those, who require more explanation, just this. I doubt, that the guy, whom you hired of the streets( just to save a buck), to clean your office window, because it is so filthy, that you have to have the lights on even during a sunny day, have a credit card machine in his pocket ready to take your $ 20.00 payment to him…         

Back from The Jungle

That cute Orangutan below is actually me , balancing on one leg , walking the very fine line on the border between common sense and idiocy. In the very beginning of my blog , I said , that I am on the journey to find some answers to questions accumulated during those years I live life of an entrepreneur…

My newest trip was to explore the world of a small business financing . If you read my post “Gunfight in O.K. Corral , you know , that I don’t suggest to approach Venture investors until your business is ready to defend the agressive approach from the VC world . If you need venture capital for surviving , then you are already dead , you just don’t know it yet .

What’s even more important to know about the private investors world now is , that if your business idea , however making sense from the profit point of view , does not have “Web 2.0″ in its DNA , you can save yourself the time and forget about VC’S at all.  Much smarter way to obtain capital for a start up is to prepare yourself and your new business for Bank financing.

If you use your head and think , there is a way , how to obtain a bank financing even for internet start up. The last thing I really knew how to do , is mowing peoples yards for living and even I own an Internet Start up now!! Yep , the world is going “mad” , it is time to take an advantage of it..

The journey through the jungle full of banks offering business banking and actually providing mostly none was so exciting and full of interesting findings, that it will take me a while to digest all the experiences . Of course as is my nature, I jumped on the “fast” train and went through the info with such intensity, that my head still hurts now.

A while ago , I read a quote ” Men plans , God laughs..”

Well , I had planned , joined  www.theXBanker.com , read a lot of very useful and valuable topics written by people associated with The Xbanker and its www.businesscreditsuccess.com , let them help me to secure successfuly the funds necessary to run and expand my business ,  then went again on a ”solo” mission , just to find out , what’s out there..Let me tell you my friends , if you are not a “lunatic explorer” by nature like I am, I suggest, you let the professional in this field to do the job . And when you want a results , you better find those, who charge for their service , because cheap , will get you exactly just that , a “cheap” results.

In my previous posts I hinted a situation that I experienced with “WellFare bank” ,the final info about it is, that I fixed everything they said is preventing me from getting the funds , including removal all the negative stuff on my biz. credit posted and reported by some idiot about a person not associated with me whatsoever and what’s worse , person dead for more , than 3 years…

I faxed all the improvements to them and never heard from them back . I guess , those guys ended up , where all the losers do . On the government wellfare payroll. But every experience is good for something and now I know , that getting your reports straight , personal and business , is a journey for itself and you better walk it before you start applying for bank financing , otherwise , you end up with bunch of inquiries on you credit and a huge frustration on your mind…

However , I had not only planned , but also executed and beside the funds secured by XBanker professionals, I got some funding on my own, so actually even I am not a God in any means, I laugh, mostly because I had find a couple answers pretty serious , but still worth laughing.

The first : Don’t look for  logic in places , where is none..

The second : Don’t try to talk a common sense to the people , who has none…

And that’s the two “jewels” I am brinking back from the journey through “The Jungle..”

Being an Entrepreneur & Father

There is one thing which makes me feel like The most fortunate man in the Universe and it is , that however I had dedicated my life to the Entrepreneurial lifestyle , that’s how I like to live , somehow I had managed to build so strong bond between me and my 5 years old son , that he not only love me like an other kids love their father , but he actually really enjoy to be with me even when I can’t pay full attention to him …..It is probably because everysince he was a baby , I had took him with me everywhere I went..

To put it in short , when you ask him where he wants to be , in the Arcade playing or with daddy in the office , there is one answer for sure…..

I can talk about being a dad , but you better ask my son.  On the other hand , I am not a superman , so don’t ask me how to be successful entrepreneur and a good husband at the same time .

I really don’t know the answer for that…..

 

Easy Money

I am sure you all are bombarded with all kinds of e-mails about easy online programs how to earn money and no to do anything . My trash bin is full of them every day and when I get bored , on a very rare occasions , I check some of them out . They all have one thing in common . As easy , as 1. 2.3. , or sign up and watch your money grow …Money this and Money that , everything is a “walking in a park”…blah, blah ,blah….I am sure many of those programs are legitimate oportunities , however , just the word “easy” is making me want to “puke”. I must be from a different planet maybe , but I have a hard time to understand , how anybody could realy enjoy a nice “walk in the park” without  running and chasing the bird called the Challenge first . Don’t get me confused with some Utopian Idealist , money are important part of our live , we the entrepreneurs know that the number one goal of any common sense business is make a profit and if you fail to do so at some point of your venture , you just have to surrender and do something else . If you are not a quitter and still have some breath left in your lungs , maybe start new , a better planned venture , but I think the point of being satisfied with what you are doing , is to provide some real value for the money you are making . Like  service to the local community , or just a single customer , make somebody else being happy , beside your-self , because you have more money , than you can possibly spend for usefull stuff in your life.

Me and some of my friends had a discussion once , what we would do , if we won a lottery . I had an answer . I would be probably even more busy , than now , if  such a thing is even possible and most likely start another venture just to figure out , how to spend all that money , beside to send all my family and loveones on a trip around the world , and not to waste the rest of it for useless stuff , like a new car , new boat or even new house or new girlfriend …

Just stuff , things and other materialistic assets alone , however shiny and pretty they are , does not make me happy , if they are not earned by giving something real for it and maybe positively impact other people lives…

Money, money , money , I like money too , so I can pay wages to people involved in my business , so I can take my kid to trip to Disneyland , so I can pay the utility company and have power to my computer , which is giving me the opportunity to actually do , in my spare time , what I like . I like to write my thoughts down and when I have any money left , I put it back to the business , because , there is always tomorrow and in case one day not for me ,  surely for people I love.

So , money , money , easy money …Is it really only all about that , you think ???   

Just Like The Hussites

QUOTE  :    ” Nothing was more distant from their intentions than attack and war , not them , but their enemies called in the bloodshed and destruction . They were the first , who not for the wealth and estates , not for the feel of the power , but to defend the highest asset for all humanity -the right for self governing and freedom to live by there own conscience , had no other choice , than to arm themselfs and take on the terrible , long fight against all their enemies , whom did not want  anything less , than a total destruction for them , and to the whole worlds’ surprise , victoriously ended it..”        Frantisek Palacky  /  19th century historian , about 15th century protestant movement in Bohemia /Czech

Now , I am not a Hussita and I hate any kind of violence , my weapons always were my voice and the words , I had spoken against communism in my “old” country at the times , when you could go to jail just for reading the wrong book . I got out of the politics a long time ago and went to live here in America , the only country , where if you really want and you are determined enough , you can still achieve your dream . That’s what I had been doing , achieving  dreams , a lot of them , against all the odds and everytime I hit an obstacle or challenge , I thought I must be doing something wrong . Yeah , I had made mistakes on the way , everybody makes some and all you can do is to learn from them , but lately , as more business I do , more dealings with all kinds of institutions , I am beginning to see , what’s really wrong…..

This time , I don’t think it is the government, abusing power, as much as is the danger of Stupidity.  In society , where one single wrong or fabricated information punched in a computer system by some stupid , useless , pencil & button pushing moron and idiot , can literally destroy peoples dreams , I would like to come out of my “shell” and start exposing that stuff not only for myself , but also for all those small business owners , “little old ladies” even naive idealists , who could very well be the “victims” of this and don’t have the courage , means , or just the “stubborness” to fight back .

When somebody either unwillingly , by mistake , or worse , intentionally post a wrong info on your business credit , he literally has the power to destroy your future . Yes , we , the entrepreneurs know , that we need to monitor our credit , but there is not only one  bureau  to monitor and even if we do ”catch” some mistake , it takes time to fight to remove it , and time is the number one valuable asset in an entrepreneurs’ life.

There is a custom , that when you criticize , you should also have a solution to offer . Maybe I do. Let’s make the politics , the legislators do their job and come up with a Bill ( Law) on behalf of the millions small business owners and make the “reporters” not only able to report , but also be criminally responsible for any damage , they cause by reporting the “wrong” info . Let’s make the business credit bureaus be responsible for collecting wrong info and not double checking that stuff . Last time I checked , a person in America is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty . In many cases , a persons small business is all what he lives for , his dream .

I had made many of my dreams come true during my life here , I could be just as happy ,  sitting at home and watching my 5 years old son play with his dog , but there are a lot of those , who are just making the first shot for their dream , so let’s take the challenge , make a difference and maybe help , just a little bit to those , who are feeling discouraged , hopeless or frustrated after going through similar situations . My private “war” is not private anymore , right now I am waiting for a report on my company from yet another credit agency , because those idiots in “WellFare Bank” could not find any reasonable reason for not approving my line and came up with some fabricated “shit” . This time , I will not only dispute it , I will take as long as it takes , get to the bottom of this and make sure , that whoever is responsible for that , it will be the last “heroic” deed he acomplished in his misserable career .    

Words hopeless , discouraged & frustrated , somehow does not exists in my dictionary , throwing “shit” in a form of incorrect info on peoples’ credit and think you guys can get away with it , is not only wrong , but really, really.. Stupid .

I am a very tolerant person with a little “twist” :  I have Zero Tolerance for Stupidity!!!

Maybe I am still being a Fool , but when I see wrongdoing , I just can’t shut up……We’ll see ..